In paging systems, subscribers receive page messages, or pages, that have been sent by users of the paging system. Generally, pages only go to the subscribers that they are intended for, and likewise, subscribers only get the pages that are intended for them.
A unique use of paging systems arises when third party subscribers, or message monitoring users, wish to obtain pages that are intended for others. One example of a message monitoring user that may wish to receive another's pages is a law enforcement agency.
In prior art systems, when law enforcement agencies wish to be message monitoring users, they are supplied with duplicate pagers so that when a page is sent to a user that they wish to monitor, the law enforcement agency also receives the page. This approach requires the law enforcement agency to maintain a number of operational pagers, one for each user being monitored. This also requires the law enforcement agency to be within the reception area of the target user so that the duplicate pager used for monitoring purposes can receive the monitored page.
In addition to law enforcement agencies, various private users may also have the need to monitor messages intended for receipt by others. Two specific examples of potential private message monitoring users that are not currently being serviced by the paging industry are employers and parents.
Many employers supply their employees with employer owned pagers for business use. The employer may need to monitor the use of these pagers to ensure that business is conducted appropriately, or to ensure that company owned pagers are not being misused. Parents or legal guardians are another example of a group of potential message monitoring users that have not been serviced by the paging industry. Parents may desire the ability to monitor the activities and pages of their children, and yet there are currently no message monitoring services available to parents.
Adapting the current law enforcement solution to private parties such as parents is not entirely feasible, because parents would not be likely to carry a duplicate pager for each child. Even if parents were to carry duplicate pagers in order to monitor multiple children, with existing prior art systems the parent would have to stay within the reception area of the children in order to receive the pages. Moreover, if all of the children being monitored are not within the same reception area, the parent cannot simultaneously monitor all children.
Paging systems currently known in the art lack a mechanism for a single user to conveniently monitor pages sent to multiple other users. As a result, when a message monitoring user is interested in monitoring multiple other users, the message monitoring user carries multiple duplicate pagers, and is confined to the reception area of the user being monitored.
What is needed is a method and apparatus for allowing a message monitoring user to conveniently receive copies of page messages intended for multiple other users. Also what is needed is a method and apparatus which provides for a message monitoring user to conveniently specify which users are to be monitored. Also what is needed is a method and apparatus to allow a message monitoring user to receive page messages intended for others even when the message monitoring user is outside of the page delivery range of the monitored parties.